Progression of Age

My bother once commented, when we were young, that I should have been born in the Shakespearean era. I took it as a compliment. People used to say that my mother and me looked like sisters rather than mother and daughter. At that time I didnt think too much about it. Now I wonder whether it was a compliment to my mom's looks or criticism to my appearance. Once a girl called me Aunty at Bombay airport, this was some 10 years ago. Though my husband was amused, I brushed it aside saying it was the married-tag. When we are younger, we tend to take everything at face value. But as we grow older we look for deeper meanings in everything and become more sensitive. Age has never been an issue with me, in the sense I never tried camouflaging it. My friend tried for an year to convince me to colour my hair, and I had been resisting. Always in my peer group, I stood out as looking younger than them, people would always guessed my age five years lesser.

So why these thoughts now, you ask. Well, now that I have decided to do my PhD, I have been interacting with younger crowd. I am used to it since my teaching days, but not as a fellow student. So these students are not sure what to call me and stick to ma'am. I am not complaining there. During admissions time, when I visit the institute, parents assume I am a professor and seek counselling for their wards. I am not against that, either. What set me thinking, was a conversation I had with a fellow student recently. He is in the final year of his MS. He was talking to another student and she wished me. He wondered how I knew her, and on hearing that I didnt, he exclaimed, "Oh! I hope she doesnt think that you are my mother" and he went ahead to clarify this point to her. She said she wished me out of courtesy. I remarked to my friend, "I dont think anyone will think I am your mother, I am not that old." He paused a bit and retorted, "My mom looks younger than you".

That's when it hit me, age has finally caught up with me. I have started looking old. So time to hit gym and beauty parlours!!!!!

Trip to Ahobilam

Weekend, we made an impromptu trip to Ahobilam. It is about 350kms from Hyderabad and we went by road along with another couple. We started around 4pm on Fri and reached Ahobilam about 10:30pm. Stopping on the way at Nandyala for dinner. The road was good except for a patch between Kurnool and Allagadda, where construction work was going on.

A bit about background of Ahobilam. It is temple dedicated to Lord Narasimha Swamy. There is a place where Lord came out of the pillar to kill Hriranyakashipa. After killing still in the ugra roopa, he is said to have roamed around the forest of Nallamalai, resting on and off. There are 9 places he is supposed to have taken rest, hence we have 9 temples in the vicinity. Each is supposed to be for one planetary position. These are on hills and around the upper Ahobilam. There is one temple at the foothills, called lower Ahobilam, said to be installed by Lord Venkateswara when he came to seek Lord Narasimha Swamy's blessings for his wedding.

Saturday morning, we got up early and visited Lower Ahobilam at around 6:30am, that is when the temple is opened. They bring a cow and calf to have the first darshan of the swamy and then it is open to public. Then we had breakfast, hired a guide and started off for the upper temples about 8am.

Reached Upper Ahobilam by car and had darshan and started trekking for the other temples. The road leading to other temples is not properly marked hence the need for a guide. We need to climb steps, walk up inclines and cross streams to reach these temples. We were lucky that it rained the night before, else the hear would have been untolerable. It was fortunate that it didnt rain heavily nor did it rain while we were trekking, as that would have made the path slippery and difficult to climb. We visited Jwala, Varaha, Malola, and Karanja Narasimha Swamy's in that order. We must have climbed about 1000 steps and covered about 10kms. The other two temples Yogananda and Chatravata, were on level with Upper Ahobilam and could be reached by car. We finished the seven temples by 12pm. Had lunch and took some rest before starting for the other two.

If the morning part was test to the leg power, the later was bone-breaking. There is no proper path to reach the other two temples and has to be done by a jeep ride. The jeep ride was no less that a roller coaster ride. We were not sure if the driver was in control of the vehicle or the vehicle was having a mind of its own. The steering was not helping a bit, or so we felt. We visited Bhargava and Pavana Narasimha Swamy temples this way and by the end of it, I had lost the coordinates of my body and was feeling all wobbly.

But it was all worth the effort. Lovely scenery, beautiful and peaceful location, nice temples. Monkey were abound, there was a party whose purse and camera was snatched!!!!! Luckily they recovered it by offering coconut pieces.

Time to return home. We started around 6pm and reached home midnight, after having dinner on the way.

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